The present invention relates to a tape recording apparatus (a tape drive) that records data in a tape medium (a tape) by running the tape medium back and forth in the longitudinal direction thereof.
In particular, it relates to a write controlling method that involves adjusting the timing of wrap-turning of the tape running direction depending on the amount of data in order to reduce the time required for positioning the tape in reading of any data.
Tape drives are superior to hard disk drives in energy consumption efficiency, that is, as a green storage.
In addition, in terms of data reading/writing performance, tape drives are comparable to hard disk drives.
However, tape drives are significantly inferior to hard disk drives in capability of positioning for data reading/writing.
According to a technique for a tape drive described in Japanese Patent No. JP2009-099207A, after a chunk of data is written on a tape medium, the part of the tape medium from the end of the chunk of data up to a position close to a predetermined position (LP3) at a first end of the tape medium is padded with dummy data before another chunk of data is written on the tape medium, thereby improving the positioning capability.
The technique described in Japanese Patent No. JP2009-099207A is effective for reducing the time required to move to the beginning of any data when the tape medium is inserted into the tape drive. However, the technique is not effective for reducing the time required to move to the beginning of any data after reading other data written on the tape medium.